SHONGA; I'm genuinely interested in how you feel, personally, that your rights have been taken away by the Anti-terrorism laws. Could you offer a few examples of the direct impact you've felt? This is not a trick question. Cheers.

It does not have to affect me personaly to be important. If a gang of armed men burst into the house of my neighbour who I don't talk to or like, line them up and shoot them in the back of the head, it doesn't affect me personally, but it's still wrong, and should be stopped.

Likewise, indefinite detention without charge, abuse of executive power and so on, these may or may not affect me personally, but they're still wrong, and should be stopped.

Of course, you may think it an unfair comparison - but if we can detain someone without charge just because he's accused of terrorism, and if the Minister can detain him when a court has freed him, then why can't government agents just shoot people out of hand? Why draw the line at imprisonment?

You know what amazes me about all the people like Leigh who are quite happy to see the back of Dr Haneef and back the governments "innocent or guilty he's going home" stance?

Its the fact that they don't really seem to care about ensuring the right thing is done. If Haneef is guilty of being involved in the plot in the UK then fine lock him up, or deport him to england. However if he isn't then why punish him? Its not going to deter any real terrorists, if anything its going to give terrorist organisations more fuel. What it will do is deter the sort of people we want to come here, the skilled and self sufficient.

Leigh

I should know better than to give your posting any credence by responding; but you’ve really soiled your pants today. And it stinks.

You dismiss the ideas of people with whom you disagree not by intelligent counter-argument but by sticking insulting labels them: “the usual suspects”, “human rights fanatics”, “self-righteous, arrogant people” “and “pain-in-the-backside people”.

You invent statistical propositions without a shred of statistical evidence. “…most Australians not giving two hoots about Haneef, if they have even heard of him”; “…prattling on about the rights of people they (most Australians) regard as threats…”; “they only talk about such things when an alien, a terror suspect or some pain in the butt belonging to a minority group is involved. We never hear from them when it comes to the majority”.

You won’t tolerate or debate an argument because the author has a “foreign name".

You appeal to base xenophobic fears, “His address appears to be Hong Kong.”

And your moral code is Hitlerian: “Stiff cheese Dr. Haneef. Innocent or not, I hope you are soon back in your own country, never to return here”.

Innocent or not? When reasonable people are asserting the right of a presumption of innocence or even a basic principle of habeas corpus, you want to deport a person even if he is found to be innocent. You don’t even feel the need to give a reason for your stance. That leaves us to guess that you want Australia to be the preserve of whites. (Whatever will we do with the millions of Indigenous Australians and non-white Australians?)

Your advice to the Government says more about you than about Dr Haneef: “Train our own people. Stop importing foreigners, many of whom can’t even communicate in English”. Wouldn't you feel better in an all-white, English-language-only country? I'll pay your fare if you van find one.

Your post is a clear but repulsive example that the word “right” in the term “right-wing” carries no moral meaning.

" We never hear from them when it comes to the majority."

Leigh probably said exactly the same thing when we were protesting his and everyone else's loss of habeas corpus. And probably said it without any sense of irony.

Good one,Punter57. Poor old Shonga will obviously not be able to answer your questions. On his own admission, Shonga is a bit on the sad side, and likes to sound of every now and then - unfortunately without much much regard to the theme he choses and its relationship to his own situation.

He's quite harmless, though, and often displays an acute sense of irony and good humour.